The Specials

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The Specials

The Specials (sometimes called The Special AKA) are an English

England

2 Tone

2 Tone is a music genre created in England in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae and pop music. Within the history of ska music, it is classified as its second wave....
ska

Ska

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music. In each musical style different norms have developed for the sizes and composition of different ensembles, and for the repertoire of songs or musical works that these ensembles perform....
formed in 1977 in Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a City status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. With a population of 303,475 at the United Kingdom Census 2001 , Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom....
. They have had hits in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, and their music

Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
is featured in film

Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
and television

Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
soundtrack

Soundtrack

The term soundtrack refers to three related concepts: recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; and the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized recorded so...
s. After seven consecutive UK Top 10 singles between 1979 and 1981, the band broke up. On 7 April 2008 it was announced that the band are officially reforming.

r being formed in 1977 by Jerry Dammers, Lynval Golding

Lynval Golding

Lynval Golding is an England musician. He is best known as a rhythm guitarist and vocalist with the United Kingdom 2 Tone Records band , The Specials....
, and Horace Panter

Horace Panter

Horace Panter also known as Sir Horace Gentleman, is the Bass guitar for the Coventry 2 Tone, ska revival Band The Specials.After spending most of his formative years in Kettering, Northamptonshire, Panter started a one-year art course at Northampton School in 1971, where he met many influential musicians....
(also known as Sir Horace Gentleman), the band was first called The Automatics, and then The Coventry Automatics.

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Encyclopedia

The Specials (sometimes called The Special AKA) are an English

England

2 Tone

Ska

Musical ensemble

Coventry

United Kingdom

Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
is featured in film

Film

Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
soundtrack

Soundtrack

Career

After being formed in 1977 by Jerry Dammers, Lynval Golding

Lynval Golding

Lynval Golding is an England musician. He is best known as a rhythm guitarist and vocalist with the United Kingdom 2 Tone Records band , The Specials....
, and Horace Panter

Horace Panter

Terry Hall

Terry Hall may refer to:*Terry Hall , English singer with The Specials, Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield*Terry Hall , English ventriloquist who worked with his puppet, Lenny the Lion...
and Roddy Byers (AKA Roddy Radiation

Roddy Radiation

Roddy Radiation played lead guitar for The Specials, as well as many rockabilly band such as the Bonediggers and the Tearjerkers. Currently Radiation is in the Skabilly Rebels, a band that mixes ska rhythms with rockabilly....
) joined the band the following year, and the band changed its name to The Special AKA The Coventry Automatics, and then to The Special AKA. Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer

John Graham Mellor , better known by his stage name Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead singer of the English punk rock band The Clash....
of The Clash

The Clash

The Clash were an English Rock music band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk rock. Along with punk rock, they experimented with reggae, ska, Dub music, funk, Hip hop music and rockabilly....
had attended one of their concerts, and invited The Special AKA to open for his band in their On Parole UK Tour. This performance gave The Special AKA a new level of national exposure, and they briefly shared the Clash's management

Management

Management in business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leadership or directing, and Control an organization or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal....
. In 1979, Dammers decided to form his own record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label can be a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of recorded sound and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the Record producer, manufacturing, distribution , marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protec...
, and 2 Tone Records

2 Tone Records

2 Tone Records was an England record label that mostly released ska and reggae-influenced music with a punk rock and pop music overtone.Jerry Dammers of the ska revival band The Specials started the record label in 1979 in music....
was born. On this label, the band released their 7" debut, a reworking of Prince Buster

Prince Buster

Cecil Bustamente Campbell, Order of Distinction , better known as Prince Buster and less known by his muslim name Muhammed Yusef Ali, is a musician from Kingston, Jamaica, Jamaica and regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of ska and rocksteady music....
's ska hit "Al Capone". Retitled "Gangsters", the song became a Top Ten hit in 1979.

The band had begun wearing mod

Mod (lifestyle)

Mod is a subculture that originated in London in the late 1950s and peaked in the early to mid 1960s.Significant elements of the mod lifestyle included pop music, such as African American Soul music, Jamaican ska, and British beat music and Rhythm and blues; fashion ; and Italian Scooter ....
/rude boy

Rude boy

Rude boy, rudeboy, rudie, rudi or rudy were common terms for juvenile delinquents and criminals in 1960s Jamaica, and have since been used in other contexts....
/skinhead

Skinhead

A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world....
-style two-tone tonic suits, along with other elements of late 1960s teen fashion

Fashion

Fashion refers to the styles and customs prevalent at a given time. In its most common usage, "fashion" exemplifies the appearances of clothing, but the term encompasses more....
s. Changing their name to The Specials, they recorded their debut LP

Album

An album or record album is a collection of related Sound recording and reproduction or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites....
Specials
Specials (album)

Specials is the debut album by United Kingdom ska revival band, The Specials.Released in 1979 on Jerry Dammers' 2Tone Records label, the album is seen by some as the defining moment in the UK ska scene....
in 1979, produced

Record producer

In the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, Audio mixing and audio mastering processes....
by Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello is an England musician and singer-songwriter. Costello came to prominence as an early participant in London's Pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres, before establishing his own unique voice in the 1980s....
. In a nod to classic ska, the album lead off with Dandy Livingstone

Dandy Livingstone

Dandy Livingstone is a Jamaican reggae musician and Record producer, best known for his 1972 hit record, "Suzanne Beware of the Devil", and for his song, "Rudy, A Message to You", which was later a hit for The Specials....
's "Rudy, A Message To You" (slightly altering the title to "A Message To You, Rudy") and also had covers of Prince Buster

Prince Buster

Cecil Bustamente Campbell, Order of Distinction , better known as Prince Buster and less known by his muslim name Muhammed Yusef Ali, is a musician from Kingston, Jamaica, Jamaica and regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of ska and rocksteady music....
and Toots & the Maytals songs from the late-1960s. In 1980, the EP "Too Much Too Young" (credited to The Special AKA) was a number one

List of number-one singles from the 1980s (UK)

This is a list of the number one singles on the UK Singles Chart, during the 1980s. The source for this decade is the Music Week chart. Continues from List of number-one singles from the 1970s ...
hit in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday, with the chart being printed in Music Week magazine , ChartsPlus , and published online on various sites ....
, despite controversy over the song's lyric

Lyric

Lyric may refer to:* Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view* Lyric, from the Greek language, a song sung with a lyre...
s, which reference teen pregnancy and promote condom use.

Reverting once again to the moniker The Specials, the band's second album, More Specials
More Specials

More Specials is an October 1980 album from the ska band The Specials. The album was the band's second, after Specials , and expanded the group's 2 tone sound to include lounge music and other influences....
was not as commercially successful or plainly ska

Ska

Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and Calypso music with United States jazz and rhythm and blues....
-influenced as previous recordings. The album featured a more experimental approach; including influences from pop music

Pop music

Pop music is a music genre that features a noticeable rhythmic element, melodies and hook , a mainstream style and a conventional structure.The term "pop music" was first used in 1926 in the sense of "having popular appeal" , but since the 1950s it has been used in the sense of a musical genre, originally characterized as a lighter alternat...
, new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a genre of rock music which originated from the late 1970s. It emerged from punk rock as a reaction against the popular music of the 1970s....
, and muzak

Muzak

Muzak Holdings Limited liability company is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, founded in 1934, that is best known for distribution of music to retail stores and other companies....
. Their 'lounge music' style would later be an influence on bands such as Air

Air (band)

Air is a France music duo, consisting of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Beno?t Dunckel. The name AIR is a backronym for which translates to Love, Imagination, Dream....
. The band also experimented with what could be described as dark, almost psychedelic

Psychedelic music

Psychedelic music is a term that refers to a broad set of popular music styles, genres and scenes, that may include psychedelic rock, psych folk, psychedelic pop, psychedelic soul, Psybient, psychedelic trance, and others....
reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Music of Jamaica, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady....
. Notable female backing singers on the Specials first two studio albums included: Chrissie Hynde

Chrissie Hynde

Chrissie Hynde is an American rock musician, best known as the leader of the band The Pretenders. She is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and has been the only constant member of the band throughout its history....
, Rhoda Dakar

Rhoda Dakar

Rhoda Dakar was born in Hampstead, London in 1960. She was the lead singer of The Bodysnatchers , who were signed to the 2 Tone record label.Their first single was a double A side, 'Let's Do Rocksteady' backed with 'Ruder Than You'....
(Then of The Bodysnatchers

The Bodysnatchers (band)

The Bodysnatchers were a seven-piece all-female band involved in the Great Britain ska revival of the early 1980s....
and later of The Special AKA), Belinda Carlisle

Belinda Carlisle

Belinda Jo Carlisle is an United States singer. Carlisle has enjoyed success twice during her career, first as lead singer and founding member of the seminal, all-female band New Wave music band The Go-Go's, then as a successful international solo artist....
, Jane Wiedlin

Jane Wiedlin

Jane Wiedlin is an American musician and actor. She is best known as the rhythm guitarist of the all-female multi-platinum New Wave music band The Go-Go's in the 1980's....
and Charlotte Caffey

Charlotte Caffey

Charlotte Irene Caffey is an United States rock and roll guitarist and songwriter, best known for her work in the Go-Go's in the 1980s, including songwriter "We Got the Beat"....
(of The Go-Gos). "Ghost Town

Ghost town

A ghost town is a town or city that has been completely abandoned by human inhabitants, usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as flood, government action, uncontrolled lawlessness or war....
", a non-LP Specials single, hit number one in 1981, however, shortly afterwards, Staple, Golding and Hall left the band to form Fun Boy Three

Fun Boy Three

Fun Boy Three were a short-lived but successful England band which ran from 1981 to 1983 and was formed by singers Terry Hall , Neville Staple and Lynval Golding after they left The Specials....
.

Dammers then drastically revised the line-up of the band, adding vocalists Stan Campbell and Rhoda Dakar, and began working again under the group name The Special AKA. The resulting album from the new line-up, In the Studio
In the Studio

In the Studio is the third album from the ska band The Specials, released in 1984 - long after the break-up of the original Specials - and only just managed to get into the U.K....
, was not very commercially successful, although the song Nelson Mandela

Free Nelson Mandela

"Free Nelson Mandela" is a song written by Jerry Dammers and performed by his Coventry-based band The Specials released on the single Nelson Mandela / Break Down The Door in 1984 as a protest against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela....
" was a big hit. The latter contributed to making Mandela a cause célèbre

Cause célèbre

A cause c?l?bre is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. It is particularly used for prolific and long-running legal cases....
in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

History of South Africa in the apartheid era

Apartheid ? meaning separateness in Dutch language ? was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994....
activists in South Africa. Dammers then dissolved the band and pursued political activism

Activism

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social change or politics change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversy argument....
.

Later developments

Since the breakup of the original line-up, various members of the band have performed in other bands and have reformed several times to tour and record in Specials-related projects. However, there has never been a complete reunion of the original line-up. In the 1980s, Hall, Staple and Golding founded the pop

Pop music

Fun Boy Three

Fun Boy Three were a short-lived but successful England band which ran from 1981 to 1983 and was formed by singers Terry Hall , Neville Staple and Lynval Golding after they left The Specials....
and enjoyed commercial success from 1981 to 1983 with hits such as "Tunnel of Love", "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)". From 1984 until 1987, Hall fronted The Colourfield

The Colourfield

The Colourfield were a United Kingdom musical ensemble formed in 1984 in Manchester, when former The Specials and Fun Boy Three frontman, Terry Hall , joined up with ex-Swinging Cats members Toby Lyons and Karl Shale....
, with some commercial success. After they disbanded, Hall pursued a solo career, working mostly in the New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a genre of rock music which originated from the late 1970s. It emerged from punk rock as a reaction against the popular music of the 1970s....
genre. He co-wrote a number of early Lightning Seeds

Lightning Seeds

The Lightning Seeds are an alternative pop/rock band, largely the brainchild of writer, singer and guitarist Ian Broudie. The group has its origins in the England city of Liverpool....
releases. He also performed some vocals for a Dub Pistols

Dub Pistols

Dub Pistols are a London based dub music and big beat musical ensemble, founded by ex-nightclub promoter, Barry Ashworth, in 1996. The other members of the band were record producer and bassist Jason O'Bryan, Brooklyn producer and lyricist, T....
' album.

Roddy Radiation

Roddy Radiation

Roddy Radiation played lead guitar for The Specials, as well as many rockabilly band such as the Bonediggers and the Tearjerkers. Currently Radiation is in the Skabilly Rebels, a band that mixes ska rhythms with rockabilly....
fronted and worked with several bands including The Tearjerkers, a band that he had begun in the last months of The Specials. The Bonediggers, The Raiders and Three Men & Black which included of JJ Burnel (The Stranglers

The Stranglers

The Stranglers are an England Rock and roll group, formed on 11 September 1974 in Guildford, Surrey.Scoring a string of UK top ten hits, including "Golden Brown", "No More Heroes " and "Peaches " and UK top forty hits spanning four decades, the Stranglers originally built a following alongside the mid-'70s pub rock scene....
), Jake Burns

Jake Burns

Jake Burns is a singer and guitarist, and is best known as a member of Stiff Little Fingers....
(Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers are a Punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, formed in 1977. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star , doing rock covers, until they discovered punk....
), Pauline Black (The Selecter

The Selecter

The Selecter were a 2 Tone ska revival Musical ensemble from Coventry, England, formed in the late 1970s.Like many other bands in the ska revival movement, The Selecter featured a racially mixed line-up....
), Bruce Foxton

Bruce Foxton

Bruce Foxton is an English people rock and roll musician who is best remembered as the bass guitar player in punk rock/New Wave music musical band The Jam and Stiff Little Fingers....
(The Jam

The Jam

The Jam were an English Rock music band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore neatly tailored suits rather than ripped clothes and incorporated a number of mainstream 1960s rock influences rather than rejecting them, placing...
), Dave Wakeling

Dave Wakeling

Dave Wakeling is a rock music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is most famous for singing and writing songs for the 1980s ska band The Beat as well as General Public....
(The English Beat, General Public

General Public

General Public was a Pop band, formed by former The Beat vocalists Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger....
) and Nick Welsh (Skaville UK). He currently fronts The Skabilly Rebels

The Skabilly Rebels

The Skabilly Rebels are an English band formed in 2003 by Roddy Radiation, formerly of The Specials and Sam Smith, who had previously worked together in rockabilly band The Bonediggers....
, a band that mixes Rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a Portmanteau word of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development....
with Ska

Ska

The Beat (band)

The Beat are a 2 Tone ska revival band founded in England in 1978. Their songs fuse ska, Pop music, Soul music, reggae and punk rock, and their lyrics deal with themes of love, unity and sociopolitical topics....
teamed up with members of The Specials to form Special Beat

Special Beat

Live album

A live album – commonly contrasted with a studio album – is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances. Live albums may be recorded at a single concert, or combine recordings made at multiple concerts....
s. In 1996, with ska enjoying a resurgence in mainstream popularity on North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n radio and MTV

MTV

MTV is an United States cable television network based in Media of New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJ ....
, several members of The Specials reunited to record Today's Specials, a studio album mostly of reggae and ska covers. This was followed in 1998 with an album of originals, Guilty 'Til Proved Innocent, featuring guest vocals by Tim Armstrong

Tim Armstrong

Timothy Lockwood Armstrong is an United States musician and songwriter best known for his work with punk rock bands Rancid , Operation Ivy , Dance Hall Crashers, and the Transplants ....
and Lars Frederiksen

Lars Frederiksen

Lars Erik Frederiksen is a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Rancid , and the frontman of Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards. He is also notable as a producer, having worked with the Dropkick Murphys, Agnostic Front, Union 13, The Gadjits, Pressure Point, and The Business ....
of Rancid

Rancid (band)

Rancid is an American punk band formed in 1991 in Albany, California, by Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong, both of whom previously played in ska punk group Operation Ivy ....
. The band toured heavily in support of both releases. These albums were followed by Skinhead Girl in 2000 and Conquering Ruler in 2001. Notably absent from these records and tours were Hall and Dammers. In 1992, ex-Specials bassist Horace Panter (aka Sir Horace Gentleman) quit music to train as a primary school teacher at the University of Central England in Birmingham. He later resumed his musical career.

In 2007, Hall teamed up with Golding for the first time in 24 years, to play Specials songs at two music festival

Music festival

A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday....
s. At Glastonbury Festival

Glastonbury Festival

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or Glasto, is one of the largest music and performing arts festivals in the world....
they appeared on the Pyramid Stage with Lily Allen

Lily Allen

Lily Rose Beatrice Allen is an England singer-songwriter. Best known for her songs "Smile ", "LDN ", "Littlest Things", "Alfie ", "Oh My God ", "The Fear " and her Mockney style, Allen is the daughter of actor/musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen....
to perform "Gangsters". Later the same day they played on The Park Stage, with Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn, , is a Grammy Award-winning England singer-songwriter and record producer whose eclectic musical style and observational lyrics have made him one of England's most successful musicians of the past 20 years....
of Blur

Blur (band)

Blur are an English alternative rock band who formed in London in 1989. The four members of the band are singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree....
on piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
and with beatboxer Shlomo

Shlomo (human beatbox)

Shlomo is a Beatboxer artist from Leeds. He has worked with artists such as Bj?rk, Martha Wainwright, DJ Yoda, Mad Professor, Damon Albarn, Mr Scruff, Nitin Sawhney and toured the world with UK hip hop crew Foreign Beggars....
providing rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events....
, to perform "A Message To You, Rudy". At GuilFest

GuilFest

GuilFest, formerly the Guildford Festival of Folk and Blues is a music festival held in Stoke Park, Guildford, England each July. The festival, like the larger Glastonbury Festival, features a range of genres including Rock music, Folk music, blues, and in recent years Pop music....
, Golding joined the Dub Pistols to again perform "Gangsters". In 2007, Golding had been regularly performing concerts and recording with Pama International, a collective of musicians, who were members of Special Beat

Special Beat

Special Beat is a 2 Tone band founded by members of The Specials and The Beat in the early 1990s. The band toured England, Japan and North America, and released some live albums....
.

On 30 March 2008 Terry Hall stated that The Specials would be reforming for tour dates in Autumn 2008, and possibly for some recording. This was officially confirmed on 7 April 2008.

On 6 September 2008, six members of the band performed on the Main Stage at the Bestival as the 'Surprise Act'. As Jerry Dammers did not play at the festival and owns the trademark rights to the name "The Specials", the group was billed as "Terry Hall and Friends".

On 2 December 2008 the band announced 2009 tour dates to celebrate their 30th anniversary. It was announced that founder member Jerry Dammers is not set to join the band on the tour. Terry Hall was quoted as saying "The door remains open to him,".

The Specials will be touring with more festivals in Japan and Australia in August 2009.

Members

Original Specials lineup

Terry Hall
Terry Hall (singer)

Terry Hall is the lead singer of The Specials, and formerly of Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, Terry, Blair & Anouchka and Vegas. He released his first solo album, Home, in 1994....
- vocals & co-songwriting
Jerry Dammers
Jerry Dammers

Jerry Dammers is a founder and Keyboard instrument player of the Coventry, England based ska revival musical ensemble The Specials .Before his days in The Specials, Dammers had been a Mod in the 1960s, then became a hippie, before becoming a skinhead....
- keyboards & main songwriter
Lynval Golding
Lynval Golding

Lynval Golding is an England musician. He is best known as a rhythm guitarist and vocalist with the United Kingdom 2 Tone Records band , The Specials....
- rhythm guitar, vocals
Neville Staple - toasting, backing vocals, percussion
Roddy Byers - lead guitar
Horace Panter
Horace Panter

Horace Panter also known as Sir Horace Gentleman, is the Bass guitar for the Coventry 2 Tone, ska revival Band The Specials.After spending most of his formative years in Kettering, Northamptonshire, Panter started a one-year art course at Northampton School in 1971, where he met many influential musicians....
bass guitar
John Bradbury
John Bradbury (drummer)

John Bradbury was the drummer with The Specials. They had a #1 UK hit with 'Ghost Town'. Other members of this seminal ska band include Jerry Dammers, Terry Hall and Neville Staple as well as Lynval Golding, Horace Panter and Roddy Radiation....
- drums

Unofficial members

Rico Rodriguez
Rico Rodriguez

This article is about the musician. For the martial artist Ricco Rodriguez see Ricco Rodriguez. For the fictional character named Rico Rodriguez see the Just Cause video game....
- trombone
Dick Cuthell
Dick Cuthell

Dick Cuthell is a United Kingdom musician. He plays flugelhorn, cornet, and trumpet, amongst a range of other brass instruments, including tenor horn and valve trombone....
- flugel horn

Special AKA

Jerry Dammers
Jerry Dammers

Jerry Dammers is a founder and Keyboard instrument player of the Coventry, England based ska revival musical ensemble The Specials .Before his days in The Specials, Dammers had been a Mod in the 1960s, then became a hippie, before becoming a skinhead....
- keyboards, vocals
John Bradbury
John Bradbury (drummer)

John Bradbury was the drummer with The Specials. They had a #1 UK hit with 'Ghost Town'. Other members of this seminal ska band include Jerry Dammers, Terry Hall and Neville Staple as well as Lynval Golding, Horace Panter and Roddy Radiation....
- drums
Rhoda Dakar
Rhoda Dakar

Rhoda Dakar was born in Hampstead, London in 1960. She was the lead singer of The Bodysnatchers , who were signed to the 2 Tone record label.Their first single was a double A side, 'Let's Do Rocksteady' backed with 'Ruder Than You'....
- vocals
Dick Cuthell - flugel horn
Stan Campbell - vocals
Egidio Newton - vocals, percussion
John Shipley - guitar
Gary McManus - bass guitar

1996 reformation

Neville Staple - vocals, percussion
Roddy Byers - vocals, lead guitar
Horace Panter
Horace Panter

Horace Panter also known as Sir Horace Gentleman, is the Bass guitar for the Coventry 2 Tone, ska revival Band The Specials.After spending most of his formative years in Kettering, Northamptonshire, Panter started a one-year art course at Northampton School in 1971, where he met many influential musicians....
- bass guitar
Lynval Golding
Lynval Golding

Lynval Golding is an England musician. He is best known as a rhythm guitarist and vocalist with the United Kingdom 2 Tone Records band , The Specials....
- rhythm guitar, vocals
Aitch Bembridge - drums
Adam Birch - trumpet, trombone
Mark Adams - keyboards

Discography

Footnotes

External links

- official website
- on unofficial 2 Tone site

The Specials

Career

Later developments

Members

Original Specials lineup

Special AKA

1996 reformation

Discography

Footnotes

Further reading

External links